A new browser have been getting a lot of buzz in the last couple of weeks and it hasn’t even launched yet.

RockMelt.com, is a browser which incorporates a lot of social networking capability and including your Facebook friends, their tweets and such sites like Yelp.com.

If you watch the 2 minute video posted on their site you will see the browser acts more like a portal and may lead to less traditional searches.

Because of the design of the browser and the incorporation of all sorts of social networking and interaction, it would appear that Domain names are not centric, to the browser which has built in search engine features.

Search input seems to be more application and social networking based and therefore seems that it would generate a much lower amount of searches because the user has plenty of shortcuts and quick links to all sorts of information

If you watch the demo you will notice that the guy never entered any site url to make a bunch of actions.

If this is the future of search, it may greatly reduce the amount of type in traffic.

If this type of broswer gains traction among users, other existing browsers may adopt some or many of these types of features as well.

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

The insidious aspect of the Next.Big.Thing.Internet is that people will continue to sloooooowly migrate away from these 90s platforms, and people still here will not realize they are gone, or ever see where they went.

Type-in traffic has always depended on a relatively new audience expecting there to be a website at the end of a generic domain. This browser/communicator might be attractive to the more knowledgable user but these people will, in turn, introduce it to others. This could turn browsing into a pack activity.

Domains could also become components in what amounts to a Massive Multi-Player Video Game…with REAL People

The Harvard/Digerati crowd from the 90s had a narrow Venture Capitalist mentality for domains. Every domain had a “business plan” a “Board of Directors”, a Mission, a Sell.UP.and.Out IPO strategy and a Branding value. It was all a
template, cook-book. Then the Parking.LOT-dot-COM world emerged.

The younger generations have grown up with real-time digital. They are not interested in cruising parking lots.

I’ve been using RockMelt for several days now. I absolutely love it. I even got my wife to switch and she was a hardcore Firefox user for years. I jumped from Chrome. It simplifies my browsing experience. Other browsers seem dated. My friends on Facebook have also been impressed with it. They also did a good job of allowing this to spread virally between Facebook users. So yeah. It might be the next big thing. I can done a ton stuff with very few clicks and without leaving my current webpage. What’s not to like about that?

Well as domainers that make money off of type in traffic if this broswer catches on and results in a lot less type in traffic as it would appear it has the possibility of doing, there is a lot less to like

“I’ve been using RockMelt for several days now. I absolutely love it. I even got my wife to switch and she was a hardcore Firefox user for years. I jumped from Chrome. ”

Mike if Stocklone represents John Q surfer I wouldn’t be too worried about RockMelt but rather what browser tool they will shortly be switching to.

BTW this post is in now way a statement or judgement on Stocklone but rather to point out that the herd is always in motion but domains have and will never change.

Simply put and I am shure you have all heard it before. No matter where surfers are going or how they choose to get there One thing will not change they will always need a destination.

I do agree as far as PPC that this new tool might cause some stomach upset for large Domain portfolio holders but on the other hand lets not hand them the sticking award until they arrive and stick for any period of time.

@stocklone mentions rockmelt and then his friends at facebook. exactly who is facebook?
500 million people worldwide,under 35,tech savy,people that do not have the ability to think individually..specifically they follow the herd where are they roaming to?of which 350 million are not in the usa.
these people are lazy..and go with the flow.fb has no established biz plan but a new movie.
and with smartphones controlling 25% of the market and expanding voice is the big thing not a browser that clicks.these people are lazy and people are looking for a destination. what happens when you are on your fb friends list and they give you bad advice?or have limited knowledge in their small heads?there is more to life,than friends,music,movies, radio and tv.
i have yet to hear one intelligent statement anywhere coming from any fb fan,company
or any affliation.what you are seeing here is fracturing of the market as I stated before google is the problem.up next will be the adoption period…with microhoo controlling 50% of the operating system market is anybody going to be installing rockmelting quickly? no, netscape can atest to this fact.there is only a limited number of items that can be displayed on a webpage there is a big world out there besides what is being displayed and what stocklone just explained he cut his world down by 99% i see nothing smart here but a shrinking head.
THIS IS NOT A CUT DOWN OF STOCKLONE JUST A STATEMENT TO THE HERD BEHAVIOR.
NOTHING PERSONAL HERE STOCKLONE WE APPRECIATE YOUR INSIGHT TO THIS EMERGING PLATFORM…….disclaimer ……this is domain guys opinion…..

FS started selling names a year or so ago after years of refusals. If you get a $20k offer for a domain that brings in $400 a year, you’re better off selling it, no?

The value in a domain is what someone’s vision of what it could be, is. When a person has a vision for an online business, they need a domain. If that domain describes what they do, they will have a head start.

As PPC income has been falling, do we value our domains less? No, in fact the opposite is true; it has made us think of the TRUE value in our names.
If I made or sold yachts, the domain I would covet most would be yachts.com – no browser or social network or whatever would alter that desire.

A twist on the usual analogy of domains = real estate; why do financial institutions pay through the nose for offices on Wall St / in The City (London)? The answer (in most cases) is just so they can say they have that office. The better the address, the more bragging rights they have. They don’t rely on passing business (read type in traffic) as they don’t have any. They pay more for those addresses because of what it says about their company; their status amongst their peers.

So, this could be bad news if you rely on type in traffic (underline the ‘could’) but it shouldn’t alter the value of your portfolio.

90% of domainers today are investing in domains that don’t crank out big bucks from PPC. They’re going to either flip the domain which is a descriptive generic domain to a company that is relevant to the domain’s prodservs, or their going to build out the domain either as a mini site or a full blown site, depending on the quality of the domain.